Expiration Date

I so appreciated not being taken out of the movie by messing with the geography like in Sleepless in Seattle where Tom Hanks gets in a rowboat on Lake Union then a few minutes later he puts ashore in Puget Sound. Or in Feast of Love having Reed College be Portland State University.

I saw this film at the Native American Film Festival at the Swinomish Community Center. A classmate of ours in Anacortes, his family owned a dairy in my high school years. Guess what? We used to "drag the gut" in that milk truck. Those milk trucks were very funny.

My father, his sister and brother all died young. I had just come up to the age my father was when he died. Then I saw this film. Yes, you think about that. Much rang true in this film. A further truth is in my high school a brother and sister in separate accidents were killed by trucks. Had either one of them had a child, you bet that child approaching their age of death would be keeping an anxious eye on trucks.

When you face that moment of truth when you look death in the eye what saves you are your roots; your spiritual roots. The native spirit is very strong. In my times of trouble I have been blessed with that spirit showing up in many forms. When Robert danced; a powerful spirit moment was in play. It was thrilling.

Nice ensemble performance, it was a kick to see David Keith. It was a fun romp. Hearing Robert Guthrie and Rick Stevenson speak added to the fun of seeing the film.

I enjoy films that are different but not stupidly different just for the sake of it. And this one has a different premise that's enjoyable, for sure. The title refers to the fact that the young man believes he is doomed to die on his 25th birthday because he will be hit by a milk truck.

It sounds far-fetched, but the filmmakers make it work. Although low budget, the production values are good, and the director has a sure hand. The cast is universally likable, and the performances never drag.

He also utilizes Seattle landmarks exceedingly well, without being cloying as some hometown filmmakers might be tempted to do.

Yes, there is a Native American theme that crops up, but the film is not preachy or weepy as some films like that can be. It's far more universal than that - it's about people, it's not about a cause. Which of course means that it affects you more deeply than a preachy film would because it's not hitting you over the head. Plus it's a comedy! If I am defining the film mostly by what it isn't, I apologize. I guess I've seen so many low budget films that fail to engage me, that I am pleased and relieved to find one that does.

Oh, and special mention goes to cast member Dee Wallace (the mom from "E.T.") who plays a mom here. She has one of the funniest lines in the movie - I won't give it away here - but you'll be pleasantly shocked to hear it come out her mouth and laugh out loud. One of the funniest lines ever said by any mom in any movie, I swear.

Do yourself a favor and rent/buy this sleeper little hit.

A film with a core idea that should work but really just doesn't. This film has all the ambition of a quirky indie comedy and especially reminds me of garden state but really lacks the finesse. Its very much a film that suffers from poor direction, editing and some bizarre sound. The way the sound has been mixed on this film is really quite bizarre with the dialogue sounding almost dubbed in due to the lack of atmosphere sound and over use of soundtrack which with a guess is down to the use of radio Mic's over a boom leaving us with to clearer sound. But the biggest faults i have to pick are that the script feels under developed and forced while a large selection of the shots leave us feeling disconnected from the characters, its really a film that feels like it could have needed an extra 6 months development.

This is a great movie that you can take the whole family to see. Clever storyline and clever writing. Well acted and just an all around great movie. You should see it. It's a very original story line.

This is made in the way that more movies need to be made. There's a lot of garbage out there and these are the kind of movies that should be popular.

This is the kind of movie that just puts you in a good mood and makes you feel better. Please go and see it.

Dee Wallace Stone is great as the mother in it. I also enjoyed the Native American backing of the movie. I thought it was a cool element. It's a unique twist on the romantic comedy.

So there's this young man, see, and he knows when he's going to die due to an old family curse, and he spends the last two weeks of his life preparing for his grisly demise.

Sounds gloomy, doesn't it? And a bit corny.

Happily, Expiration Date avoids both of these two pitfalls adroitly, and what could have been an 'artsy' bit of gallows humor is instead a very surprisingly warm romantic bildungsroman. It is often cheeky, sometimes hilarious, and never self-indulgent.

After a brief framing narrative (think of the boy-and-grandpa bits in The Princess Bride) we are introduced to our hero, who believes that, like his father and grandfather before him, he is doomed to be crushed by a milk truck on his next birthday, just a few days hence. The preparations he makes for his imminent demise certainly occasion a few obvious bits of black humor (measuring the view from his burial plot by stretching himself out on the grass) but that takes up a lot less of our character's attention than the young woman who has entered his life and who keeps encouraging him, despite himself, to get involved with living instead of with dying. Her performance, sometimes a bit shrill, is the only sour note I felt in this movie, but I was able to overlook it because the lead character is so charming and she is clearly trying to serve as a foil for that.

The plotting is neatly reflexive, with lots of little detailed sub-plots which are brought around later in the movie and wrap the whole bundle up so that it's more allegory than realism. But that turns out to be okay (minus, again like the Princess Bride, the unnecessary framing story), and the leads generally keep things light enough that we excuse the poetic bits. I certainly hope this one finds a distributor. It deserves it.